KARACHI, June 21: A 45-year-old woman was killed on Saturday during a bungled robbery in the small hours of Saturday in a shantytown in Gulishtan-i-Jauhar, police and witnesses said.

Police said that three bandits barged into the hut of Bashir Ahmed, a labourer, in Hussain Hazara Goth in the Block-4 at around 3:30am.

They said that the intruders held the inmates at gunpoint as they woke up. The police said the bandits became jittery when, Abdul Karim, son-in-law of the house owner, raised alarm and tried to get hold of one of the intruders.

The police said that one of bandits opened fire when he saw his accomplice being overpowered by the inmates.

They said Shamim, 45, wife of Bashir Ahmed, was killed on the spot in the firing and the inmates caught one of the bandits.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where sources said the victim, mother of four children, received two bullets, one in right arm and the other in the abdomen, which proved fatal.

The police said two bandits fled the scene following the firing incident, and a police party patrolling the vicinity took the custody of the captured suspect, who was identified as Ashraf Ali, son of Rehmat Ali.

They said the arrested suspect, who was also found in possession of an unlicensed pistol, identified one of his accomplices as Asif, while the third bandit remained unidentified.

The police registered a case against three bandits under Section 397 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the widower.

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